Poetry Events in NSW, February-March 2016
A regular feature for The Red Room Company from Norm Neill, to encourage the sense of community among poets and the poetry-appreciation community. We would love to have a comprehensive bulletin for Australia-wide, so if you have any feedback, readings, performances, launches, etc. please send an email to kristy@redroomcompany.org.
Sunday 21 February, 3.00 pm –DiVerse Poets will present a recital on works by Cressida Campbell, Grace Cossington Smith and Margaret Preston exhibited for Destination Sydney featuring Sheryl Persson, Marcel Freiman, Rob Kennedy, Brenda Saunders and Garry McDougall. S.H. Ervin Gallery, 2 Watson Road (near The Observatory), The Rocks. Entry $7/$5(concession).
Sunday 21 February, 3.30 for 4.00 pm – Sophie Masson will launch three translation books by Raghid Nahhas, including Verses across the Tasman, upstairs at Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road. Readers will include Margaret Bradstock and Louise Wakeling. Free entry, but RSVP Gleebooks 9660.2333 or events@gleebooks.com.au.
Tuesday 23 February, 5.00–8.00 pm – Woollahra Council will present New Beginnings, the 2016 Poets’ Picnic at Blackburn Gardens, 536 New South Head Road, Double Bay. Jazz and children’s chalk poetry workshop from 5.00 pm, and poets from 6.00 pm. Featured poets are Zohab Zee Khan, Melinda Smith, Geoffrey Lehmann, Robert Adamson, Pip Smith and Elias Greig, plus performances by local schools. Bring a picnic, buy refreshments on the night or pre-order a picnic hamper on www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/poetspicnic. Free entry.
Wednesday 24 February, 7.30 pm (doors open) – Live Poets will start 2016 by presenting poet Bhupen Thakker and keyboardist Geoff Yuile Smith Plus the usual open section for anyone to recite, sing, tell a story or play an instrument. Live Poets @ Don Bank, 6 Napier St North Sydney. $7 entry includes supper and drinks. Further info/bookings: Danny Gardner (Convenor) (02) 9896 6956 Mobile 0422 263 373 or dannylivepoets@yahoo.com.au.
Friday 26 February 10.30am – 12 00 noon – Poet, novelist and academic Berndt Sellheim will lead the first of two free 90-minute creative poetry writing workshops that will map the appearing and disappearing worlds around us. Cowra Library, 77 Darling Street, Cowra. Supported by The Red Room Company and Charles Sturt University. Free, but bookings on (02) 6340 2180.
Friday 26 February 1.30pm–3.00 pm – Poet, novelist and academic Berndt Sellheim will lead the second of two free 90-minute creative poetry writing workshops that will map the appearing and disappearing worlds around us. Cowra Library, 77 Darling Street, Cowra. Supported by The Red Room Company and Charles Sturt University. Free, but bookings on (02) 6340 2180. Click here for more details.
Saturday 27 February, 2.30–5 00 pm – Peter Kirkpatrick will launch of David Gilbey's Pachinko Sunset, Anna Couani will launch Mark Roberts’s concrete flamingos and Ron Pretty will launch Lauren Williams's Cleanskin Poems, upstairs at the Friend in Hand Hotel, 58 Cowper Street. Glebe. Free entry.
Sunday 28 February, 2.00 pm – Sydney Poetry @2 will present Sydney-based artist of Samoan descent Brian Fuata. His improvisational practice is grounded in conversation, text and movement. He frames himself as ‘a performance that is responsive to its immediate environment’. Brett Whiteley Studio, 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills. Free entry, thanks to sponsorship of J.P. Morgan.
Sunday 28 February, 2.00–4.00 pm – King’s Cross Festival Poetry Reading, with Louise Carter, Milo Bilbrough, Billy Marshall Stoneking, Ruark Lewis, Conrad, Kate Lilley, Anna Couani, Les Wicks & joanne burns. The Yellow House 57 to 59 Macleay Street, Potts Point. $10 entry includes coffee or tea and cake.
Wednesday 2 March, 6.00–8.00 pm – The Australian Society of Authors will present US National Champion performance poet, scholar and entrepreneur Dr Lee Francis IV, who share perspectives and insights on USA First Nations writing and storytelling, and discuss his process as a poet and how his work as a performance poet affirms his oral traditions and bridges contemporary writing process and market practice. ASA Suite 1.06, 22-36 Mountain Street, Ultimo. Entry $10. including wine and snacks. Bookings on (02) 9211 1004 or at www.asauthors.org.
Saturday 5 March, 2.00 pm – The Wagga Wagga launch of David Gilbey’s Pachinko Sunset, Mark Roberts’s concrete flamingos, Les Wicks’s Getting By Not Fitting, and Lauren Williams’s Cleanskin Poems at the Wagga Wagga City Library, wagga Wagga Civic Centre, Baylis Street and Morrow Street, Wagga Wagga. Free entry.
Tuesday 8 March, 7.00–9.30 pm – On the second Tuesday of March the Sappho Poetry Night will play host to poets Alex Skovron, Robyn Rowland, both from Melbourne, plus Andy Kissane and Tricia Dearborn from Sydney. There will also be an open section. Sappho Books Cafe & Wine Bar, 51 Glebe Point Road Glebe. Drinks and tapas at the bar. Free entry
Wednesday 9 March, 7.00 pm – Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me, a pop-up experimental concert and performance inspired by memories and warnings from the past, including a version of Slessor’s Five Bells with music and projection, a piece from 1933 based on the words of Peat Bog Soldiers, and a rarely performed work by Charles Mingus. The evening will feature Ruark Lewis (voice and vocal pyrotechnics), Laurie Scott Baker (Electric and Upright Bass) and Vsevolod Vlaskine (Projection Graphics).Glebe Justice Centre, 37 St. John’s Road (off Glebe Point Road). Glebe. Teas available, BYO beer Suggested minimum donation $10.
Wednesday 9 March, 7.00 pm (doors open – reading starts 7.30) – The North Shore Poetry Project will present a one-off event, featuring Robyn Rowland, whose poetry books have been published in Australia, Ireland and Turkey, and editor and widely-published poet Alex Skovron. Rubino’s Italian eatery, 2/63 Penshurst Road, Willoughby. (Entry in Oakville road, opposite Willoughby Post Office.) Parking behind Rubino’s. Entry $30, including two-course set menu. Bookings essential with Philip on (02) 9958 3977 or at philippi@optusnet.com.au.
Saturday 12 March, 10.00 am–4.00 pm – Christine Gietz will lead a poetry writing workshop which will unpack both styles and approaches to writing poetry, and will help each participants find his or her ‘voice’ and style. WEA House, 77 Bathurst Street, Sydney. $100/$90(concession). Bookings at www.weasydney.com.au or on (02) 9264 2781 (9.00 am–4.30 pm, Monday–Friday – $3 booking fee for phone transactions).
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